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US secretary of state Marco Rubio has warned that Iran’s unwillingness to discuss its ballistic missile programme with Washington is a “big problem” ahead of talks set for Thursday that are aimed at averting American strikes on the Islamic republic.
Speaking during a visit to the Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday, Rubio sought to bolster the justification for a possible armed intervention against Iran, a day after US President Donald Trump accused Tehran of harbouring “sinister” intentions with regards to its nuclear programme.
On Iran’s ballistic missiles, Rubio said Tehran “refuses to talk about the ballistic missiles to us or to anyone, and that’s a big problem”.
The Islamic republic had “thousands of short-range ballistic missiles” that threatened US forces and its bases and partners in the region, America’s top diplomat said. Tehran also had naval assets that “threaten shipping and try to threaten the US Navy” and conventional weapons that were “designed to attack the US”, he added.
However, Rubio said that Thursday’s talks in Geneva, involving US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the American side, would be “largely focused on the nuclear programme”, and that Washington hoped “progress can be made”.
Still, Rubio criticised Iran for “trying to get to the point where they ultimately can” enrich uranium, though he acknowledged that the country was not doing so yet.
“They don’t need to enrich in order to have nuclear energy. They don’t need nuclear energy, by the way, they have plenty of natural gas,” Rubio said.
“The fact that they insist, not just on enrichment, but on enrichment and locations located inside of mountains is . . . you would have to lack common sense to not know what that means, or what that could mean.”
Iranian leaders insist their nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes and that any agreement must recognise what they describe as Iran’s right under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to enrich uranium. Tehran has also said it will not agree to separate US demands to restrict its ballistic missile programme or to curb its support for anti-Israel armed groups.
Asked whether Thursday was the last chance for diplomacy, Rubio said: “I don’t think diplomacy is ever off the table.” He added that Trump’s “preference” was to “make progress on the diplomatic front”.
“I wouldn’t characterise tomorrow [Thursday] as anything other than . . . a set of conversations,” Rubio said. “If you can’t even make progress on the nuclear programme, it’s going to be hard to make progress on the ballistic missiles as well. So I wouldn’t characterise tomorrow as anything other than the next opportunity to talk.”
The secretary of state’s comments came after Iran threatened to escalate any conflict with the US in the event of an American attack. In preparation for potential military action, the US has amassed its largest naval force in the Middle East since its 2003 invasion of Iraq and has significantly increased the number of fighter jets it has on land and at sea in the region.
A regime insider in Tehran told the FT that Iran had changed strategy to one designed to impose tangible costs on American forces and assets if conflict erupted.
He added that Tehran was not seeking war and hoped that the Geneva talks could pave the way for a new nuclear deal that would stop an American attack, but it would rather fight than capitulate to Trump.
“This time would not be a war game in response,” the insider said, referring to missile attacks on US bases in Iraq in 2020 and Qatar last year that were telegraphed to avoid full-scale war.
“Iran would move toward escalation, targeting anything within reach from US bases to the Strait of Hormuz and American warships.”